Net Sweeps 232 Arrest in Mississippi

More than 232 violent offenders are off of Mississippi Streets thanks to the efforts of the US Marshall Service and other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

More than 232 violent offenders are off of Mississippi Streets thanks to the efforts of the US Marshall Service and other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. MPB's Lawayne Childrey reports on the success of Operation FALCON 2009.

FALCON the acronym for Federal and Local Cops Organized Nationally was led by the US Marshal Service during the month of June. Gulf Coast, US Marshal Supervisor, Justin Vickers, says their efforts paid off big in Mississippi's Southern District.

“You got people wanted for sexual assault, you got people wanted for shootings, carjacking, aggravated assaults, child porn. And some of the people we arrested were not wanted on warrants out of Jackson or Hattiesburg or the coast, they were wanted on warrants from another state where they had fled from that state and came here. So we’ve taken somebody’s else’s problem out of our community and put them back on a bus or a patrol car to go back to where they came from.”

Mississippi Corrections Commissioner, Chris Epps, says this fugitive sweep should serve as a warning for other offenders.

“You out there and you not following your probation or parole order and you out there doing what you know not to do. Oh we gone catch ya. We gone catch ya and we gone catch ya and we gone prosecute you and we gone lock you up and you gone stay the entire time.”

Of the arrest made about 100 were from the Jackson area, 21 in Hattiesburg and 111 from the coast. Steven Marketer, US Marshal Chief Deputy for Mississippi's Southern District says he's anxious to take even more violent offenders off the streets.

“I wish that we could do this year round if funding were possible. But the fact that we did this with only ten thousand dollars in additional funds is outstanding actually.”

This is the sixth time operation FALCON has been conducted in Mississippi's Southern District. For MPB News, I'm Lawayne Childrey.